Kees deMooy ’01

Kees deMooy explains a stormwater project to a group of non-profit and government officials at the Middle Chester Trust Fund Field Day

June 04, 2013

Kees deMooy didn’t have far to go for his first job after graduation–just down the road, in fact.

As a newly minted graduate in 2001, Kees was part of the creation of the C.V. Starr Center, where he worked for six years before leaving to pursue a Master’s degree in Historic Preservation from the University of Maryland.

At the Starr Center, Kees was involved in planning lectures and events, including the Maritime History Lecture Series, Chestertown History Weekend, and the George Washington Book Prize. His work also contained an international aspect, the “most challenging and rewarding project” in which he was involved–a U.S. Department of State-sponsored pilot program, the American Studies Institute. This program brought twenty-one Muslim College students from Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh to Washington College for a six-week intensive immersion in American politics, history and culture. The six-week course included field trips to Philadelphia, Washington, and New York, where participants met with former President Bill Clinton.

Kees is now Zoning Administrator for the Town of Chestertown, where the town’s small size means wearing a lot of hats. Kees finds himself active in zoning, planning, historic preservation, ordinance enforcement, property inspections, grant writing and administration, even fixing the flags on the front of the building when they get tangled up during storms.

He has also worked with the Town’s sustainability initiatives, including the Living Shoreline at Wilmer Park, rain gardens on three publicly-owned properties, and has been part of getting the Town Sustainable Maryland Certified, one of only four towns in the State which have that designation.

Kees deMooy may have stayed close to his alma mater. But the daily challenges of his job and the knowledge and expertise he’s developed to meet them are far-ranging indeed.